New to BYC- we have Marek’s :’(

[Grammy60]

Hi Tracey and welcome to BYC So sorry for your losses

 

[Kmaria187]

Hi Tracey and Welcome to BYC So sorry you have had a rough start to your dream!!

 

[RoyalChick]

Welcome to BYC. It is a terrible disease. So sad.
I too have Marek’s in my flock and am learning to set my expectations.
The two threads you should read have already been posted by others.
Hang in there.

 

[Tumbleweedlynn]

Hi, I’m Tracy and this is my first post. I found ya’ll through a link a friend (whom I met through TikTok) sent me regarding Marek’s disease.
I’ll begin by the six chickens we started with and after being told we couldn’t have chickens in the little country community we were living in, my hubby n I bought a little farm on 10 acres, 11 months ago. Of course the plan was to add more chickens which is exactly what we did in Feb 2023. We Added 53 chickens in less than 2 months and I had just ordered more chickies online (non refundable and arrived in early May), which totals 68 chickens, when we realized we had Marek’s disease, the end of April.

Ffwd to today, we have lost 25 birds in the past 6 months to Marek’s, along with losing 2 of our original chicken’s we started with we lost due to predator’s and 1 baby chick (from 1st added clutch) passed as a result from failure to thrive.

My husband and I have been married nearly our whole lives … haha.. (33 years), we have 3 grown daughter’s, all are married, 9 grandchildren (8 are living) and are ages 8 months-12 years of age. We are fairly young empty nesters so buying a little country farmhouse on 10 acres was an exciting decision to host all our young grand babies; and having a few farm animals, we believed, would be fun for us and for them.

Needless to say, I’ve cried a flood of tears, combatted an emotional breakdown as a result of so many losses and have missed hosting much of anything as we’ve poured ourselves into caring for and attempting to slow the spread of this evil disease (As well as spent a fortune attempting to doing so).

So here I am, a young chicken mom in the grand scheme of chicken keeping, who is trying to find the joy I dreamed about after falling in love with my first 6 chickens & then the idea of having a large flock.
In addition, we currently have 2 Boston terrier dogs, 6 baby turkeys (2 months old), and 4-six month old Emu’s (2 boys/2girls).

Hi Tracy

Hi, I’m Tracy and this is my first post. I found ya’ll through a link a friend (whom I met through TikTok) sent me regarding Marek’s disease.
I’ll begin by the six chickens we started with and after being told we couldn’t have chickens in the little country community we were living in, my hubby n I bought a little farm on 10 acres, 11 months ago. Of course the plan was to add more chickens which is exactly what we did in Feb 2023. We Added 53 chickens in less than 2 months and I had just ordered more chickies online (non refundable and arrived in early May), which totals 68 chickens, when we realized we had Marek’s disease, the end of April.

Ffwd to today, we have lost 25 birds in the past 6 months to Marek’s, along with losing 2 of our original chicken’s we started with we lost due to predator’s and 1 baby chick (from 1st added clutch) passed as a result from failure to thrive.

My husband and I have been married nearly our whole lives … haha.. (33 years), we have 3 grown daughter’s, all are married, 9 grandchildren (8 are living) and are ages 8 months-12 years of age. We are fairly young empty nesters so buying a little country farmhouse on 10 acres was an exciting decision to host all our young grand babies; and having a few farm animals, we believed, would be fun for us and for them.

Needless to say, I’ve cried a flood of tears, combatted an emotional breakdown as a result of so many losses and have missed hosting much of anything as we’ve poured ourselves into caring for and attempting to slow the spread of this evil disease (As well as spent a fortune attempting to doing so).

So here I am, a young chicken mom in the grand scheme of chicken keeping, who is trying to find the joy I dreamed about after falling in love with my first 6 chickens & then the idea of having a large flock.
In addition, we currently have 2 Boston terrier dogs, 6 baby turkeys (2 months old), and 4-six month old Emu’s (2 boys/2girls).

Hi Tracy - welcome!

I’m sorry to hear of your struggles. I have Marek’s in my flock, too - confirmed about 8 months ago. I have two separate flocks in separate runs/coops, and have only had losses in my mixed flock. I don’t know why. I’ve had oodles of babies, and they are still thriving.

It is a bizarre illness, very random. But I hope you hang in there and enjoy every day with them, which is really all we can ever do. I watched one of my Cemani hens attack a swooping hawk today that was trying to pick off one of the babies, and although it was scary, it was also awesome to witness. They are really resilient creatures